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Transition interview with Myself

It is my intention to interview fascinating people & have them tell me about either current or significant change they've lived through, how they've navigated changes in their life, what they would do differently next time and what they learned from it all.
So! I thought I better begin with me, since it might seem otherwise rude to ask people to open up here on questions I haven't answered yet myself. I always love when interviews in magazines begin by describing where the interview was held and how the interviewee looked. So it begins...

Me #1 (the interviewer): Thank you for meeting me here in the kitchen.
Me #2 (the interviewee): No sweat, only it's more than a kitchen you know. It also houses my "office," and the "dining room."
Me #1: Have you lived the studio for a while?
Me #2: Oh, about as long as you have. Five years and a couple weeks to be exact.
Me #1: That's a long time.
Me #2: Yeah, it's actually the longest I've ever lived anywhere in my life.
Me #1: So, would you say that you experienced change in your life from all of the different homes you've lived in and places you've moved?
Me #2: Yeah, you could say that. But I'm not really interested in that question right now, so let's talk about something else.
Me #1: Those are really nice glasses.
Me #2: Thanks, I like them. I love when I get home to take my contacts out and put my glasses on. It's like hitting the power down button. I don't like wearing them out in the world because I feel like there's a glass wall--I mean, they are pretty thick--between me and everything else. But at home, my little 300 square foot sanctuary--actually, I'm not any good at estimating these things, so it could be as many as 400--I get to be 100% me, and that includes the glasses.
Me #1: And the banana clip?
Me #2: It's not a banana clip. It's more orange slice sized, or caterpillar.
Me #1: Mm, interesting.

Me #2: Hey, aren't we supposed to be talking about significant changes?
Me #1: Yes, so, can you describe a time in your life when you went through a significant change, or is there a significant change going on right now?
Me #2: Funny you should ask. I'm actually wading through change right now. Waiting to see if I will a) be transitioned to a job I might like, b) be laid off (please oh please oh please!), or c) be transitioned into something I don't want at all in which case I will have to swiftly figure out what my options are.
Me #1: That sucks.
Me #2: Yeah, one of the three thousand things that suck about possible downsizing/huge organizational changes is waiting to hear your fate while also trying to somehow organize it. Another thing that sucks is that people around you are in the same situation, freaking out, often competing for recognition, and often really great people who DON'T want to get laid off end up getting let go, when perfectly decent people who would be happy to take the fall (see item B above), are continuously reassured that they will be "fine" by people who have no understanding of what fine means to them.
Me #1: You sound stressed. Maybe you should go put your contacts in and take them out again. So, what would you say you are learning in the midst of this highly uncomfortable and ambiguous time?
Me #2: That if I couldn't laugh I would need to be checked into a mental facility. That friends who listen to you perseverate on the topic are beautiful, kind and deserving of deep gratitude. That the basics in life must be attended to: enough sleep, enough exercise, enough time to write, enough cocktails but not too many. Try to remember high school, when everything was absolutely hugely enormously important at all times, even when it wasn't. You survived that, you can survive anything.
Me #1: Ah, come here, let me give you a hug.
Me #2: Okay, this is just awkward.

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Comments

i loved this interview with yourself. i am quiet fond of the interviewer and the interviewee.

our family has been in transition. we know where we are landing now, but we spent a lot of time hoping and waiting to see if we would be transitioned. the answer was for the most part a "no." like you i just look back at where i have been that God has gotten me through, then hope forward. seriously if i can get through all that than this is nothing!

i am going to start referring to my clip as a caterpillar clip, and think of you.

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